Fallen Flags, The Classic American Railroad
Fallen Flags, a name all too common now describing American railroads (just a bittersweet fact of the free market at work), is term meaning those railroads whose corporate name has been dissolved either through merger, bankruptcy, or liquidation. At one time in the United States there were nearly 140 Class I railroads (or those with at least $1 million annual operating revenue at that time) and today these are commonly known as the fallen flags or “classic” railroads. The older folks reading this can remember almost all of these in person, from the legendary Santa Fe with its famous Warbonnet paint scheme to the mighty Pennsylvania and this country’s first common carrier, the Baltimore & Ohio. Most of the fallen flags remembered today operated roughly until the 1970s before bankruptcy and mass-mergers (which began in the 1950s with the Norfolk & Western purchase of the Virginian Railway) did many in and dwindled the Class I numbers to just a handful. While the glory days of railroads (when they were earning the most profits) extended from roughly the late 19th century to just after WWII, ask most railfans and the time period with which these railroads are best remembered extends from roughly the 1940s to the 1970s when the railroads began switching from steam locomotives to diesel-electrics (commonly known as “diesels”) and paint schemes and emblems abounded, giving each company its own, personal identity with which folks could relate to. Much of this "bonding" came from the fact that railroads during those days operated in a particular region or part of the country where folks could easily recognize the railroad which ran through their town (and to some extent, railroads back then used to be a bit more cordial than today), and not the entire eastern or western half of the country like we see today (for instance, some small towns boasted four to five Class Is at one time!). Today nearly all of those classic railroads, now fallen flags, are gone except for just a few (the Union Pacific is perhaps the most notable), although their legends and names will always live on. Below you will find links to some of the best remembered of these classic fallen flags describing each in more detail and broken down into the territory where they operated (i.e., east, west, north, south).
NortheastBaltimore & Ohio Bangor & Aroostook Railroad Bessemer & Lake Erie Boston & Maine Central Vermont Railway Chesapeake & Ohio Chessie System Jersey Central Delaware & Hudson Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (The Lackawanna) Erie Railroad Erie Lackawanna Lehigh & Hudson River Lehigh & New England Lehigh Valley Maine Central Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad Monongahela Railway New York Central System New York, New Haven & Hartford Pennsylvania Railroad Penn Central Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Pittsburgh & West Virginia Reading Lines Rutland Railroad Western Maryland SoutheastAtlantic Coast Line Central of Georgia Clinchfield Railroad Gulf, Mobile & Ohio Family Lines System Florida East Coast (FEC) (This railroad is still operating, it is placed here because of its long and storied history.) Louisville & Nashville Norfolk & Western Railway Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Seaboard Air Line Seaboard Coast Line Southern Railway Virginian MidwestChicago, Burlington & Quincy (The Burlington Route) Chicago & Eastern Illinois Chicago & Illinois Midland Chicago Great Western Detroit, Toledo & Ironton Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Green Bay & Western Illinois Terminal Lake Superior & Ishpeming (This railroad is still operating but placed here because of its historical significance.) Monon Route Chicago & North Western Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific (Rock Island) Illinois Central Kansas City Southern (This railroad is still operating, it is placed here because of its long and storied history.) New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (The Nickel Plate Road) Soo Line St. Louis Southwestern (The Cotton Belt) Toledo, Peoria & Western (This railroad is still operating but is placed here because of its historical significance.) Wabash SouthwestAtchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (The Santa Fe) Denver & Rio Grande Western (The Rio Grande) Missouri Pacific (The MoPac) Saint Louis-San Francisco Railway (The Frisco) Southern Pacific The Katy Union Pacific (This railroad is still operating, it is placed here because of its long and storied history.) NorthwestBurlington Northern Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific (The Milwaukee Road) Great Northern Northern Pacific Spokane, Portland & Seattle (SP&S) Western Pacific For more information on fallen flags not mentioned above please click here. Lastly, for a guide to the historical societies keeping alive the memory of most of the fallen flags covered above, plus many others, please click here.
You may notice when searching that the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific (and all Canadian railroads) have been left out of the index. While, of course, it should definitely be noted that these railroads play a significant role in U.S. rail-freight transport (mostly north-south) today (and more-so every year now it seems), partly because they also have taken over railroads here in the States, they are not of U.S. origin and that is why they are not included here.

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